Highpoint: Pennsylvania. Mt. Davis, June 12, 2010

[TrishandAlex]

Cut and pasted from http://www.trishalexsage.com
Accompanying pictures can be found there.
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After a lovely visit with Grandmom and Granddad, the girls and I headed out to do three highpoints in one day: PA, MD, and WV.

First, Pennsylvania.

The drive west was faster than I anticipated; no traffic and clear roads made for easy driving. Once we got into the general area, we entered Amish country and slowly (being careful of horses and buggies) made our way toward the summit road.

The road was gentle and well paved. We passed a lovely picnic ground on the way up.

The road continues...

...until it reaches a parking lot. Here's the gravel path to the actual highpoint...

...which is a boulder at the summit.

Nearby stood a tower, which we naturally climbed.

The day was overcast, we only had views in one direction.

We climbed down, then began a short drive south.

Next stop: Maryland.

 

[dom15931]

Gets better as you go south on your list!

Nice.

Mt Davis umm...well...the "Mount" part is a little misleading. The tower is fairly interesting though and I recall the sumit rock. I can remember even as a kid being somewhat disappointed by Mt. Davis figuring that because it was the highest it would have better views than Northern PA or the ridge and valley region. Nope. I did return here with a friend several years ago. I don't visit this area often because being a resident of PA its still a 2.15 hr drive and I can be in WV's mountains in just under 3.5.

Maryland is interesting for several reasons as I recall. 1. you start in WV and 2. The highpoint is just the highest point in the state, part of a long ridge with higher points in WV. I do remember some views East here and a summit register at the top. There was as of very recently a white "Maryland highpoint" sign on the left side of US 219 marking the somewhat difficult to spot trailhead to Backbone.

Spruce Knob is much better along with the area in general which is a new favorite area of mine. On a clear day in the evening the shadows that cast accross the adjacent Appalachian mountains, namely North Fork Mtn, are incredible.

Hopefully you get views at Spruce Knob. Good ones can be a little tough to get. How did it go?

-Dom

 

[Chugach001]

I really like your posts and reading about your adventures with the girls. Congrats on getting them out so much.

Every year I think that I should have knocked off more easy highpoints with my kids when they were younger and then a year later find out I still haven't done anything. You are my new inspiration. Thanks!

 

[TrishandAlex]

Hi Dom,

The girls weren't disappointed -- the drive through Amish country was nice, and this seemed like a big peak after having done Delaware the day before.

I'll post MD tomorrow and WV the day after. Trying to get one TR up a day.

MD went well, we were socked in at WV. I thought the area in WV was gorgeous, though. Will talk more about that on that TR post, hopefully the day after tomorrow,

Chug, thanks for your message. Yes, getting the easy ones out of the way when they're young is nice (and there are so many easy ones!). This way, when they're teens and have spent many years climbing in the Whites, if they want to tackle the big ones, those are all they'll have left. Also provides incentive for them to climb bigger and higher. Both girls currently want to do all 50 and talk about how they'll ready themselves for the big ones when they're older. Of course, if they change their minds, that's fine -- we'll still have done all these in one summer trip, which in and of itself is adventure enough.